The end of scab tills

[UnderOpenSky]

Jesus. Went to Lidl today to get a couple of items at lunch. Forgot they only had manned tills. Sighed inwardly at the classic of someone paying cash who didn't think to have it ready before they pay, but next up was some poor old chap trying to work out their app. I can be a bit quick to say move with the times I guess, but after witnessing it, I totally see why cash needs to stay. And loyalty apps can fuck right off, but I think people on both sides can agree with that one.

 

[brogdale]

Straw in the wind, I know, but at the informal 'dual queues' for the scabs at my local Lidls the cash folk seem to be waiting longer in longer queues. There don't seem to be enough cash tills for them.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Straw in the wind, I know, but at the informal 'dual queues' for the scabs at my local Lidls the cash folk seem to be waiting longer in longer queues. There don't seem to be enough cash tills for them.

I mean isn't that just the way with Lidl, even in the ones that don't have them? I normally avoid them if I can as the wait can be awful. Aldi they open more checkouts.

 

[phildwyer]

Shout back Phil!

Bloody thing would probably shoot me.

 

[bellaozzydog]

I rarely go out in town! Cashless pubs are a bad idea if you’re getting hammered IMO

is stitching up the puss head a thing with contactless in drinkeries nowadays?

I’ve found doing contactless beeping in shops abroad gives an opportunity to “add a nought” to the tourists bill.

Got sizzled in Tanzania for an eye wateringly expensive yoga mat and in morocco paid about 30 quid for a bag of nuts and a bottle of water from a kiosk.

My lack of awareness at fault mainly

 

[Orang Utan]

is stitching up the puss head a thing with contactless in drinkeries nowadays?

I beg your pardon?

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

I don't know about the usefulness of cash as a way of controlling your spending while you're out boozing tbh. I remember on plenty of occasions discovering I'd managed to stagger to the cashpoint and take out another fifty quid.

 

[magneze]

'It hasn't delivered': The spectacular failure of self-checkout technology

Unstaffed tills were supposed to revolutionise shopping. Now, both retailers and customers are bagging many self-checkout kiosks.

www.bbc.com

 

[hash tag]

Scab tills have been discussed in various places but it's time they had their own thread. Round my parts of South London, they appear to be taking over. Some places have staff and cameras watching over you. Some tills each have their own camera and screen keeping an eye on each individual customer ( are they using facial recognition ). Some place, you have to scan your receipt before they let you exit.
I refuse to use them, always preferring to queue to be served by a person.
There is good news this morning. Does this mark the beginning of the end for scab tills?
BBC News - Lancashire supermarket chain Booths puts staff back behind its tills

Self-service: Booths supermarket puts staff back behind its tills

Booths says removing its self-service checkouts is the right thing to do and what customers want.

www.bbc.co.uk

'It hasn't delivered': The spectacular failure of self-checkout technology

Unstaffed tills were supposed to revolutionise shopping. Now, both retailers and customers are bagging many self-checkout kiosks.

www.bbc.com

 

[scifisam]

I don't know about the usefulness of cash as a way of controlling your spending while you're out boozing tbh. I remember on plenty of occasions discovering I'd managed to stagger to the cashpoint and take out another fifty quid.

Yeah. And TBH if I do go out with cash - well, did, it's been so long - I'd tend to see it as already spent once I'd taken it out. And it's so much easier to be robbed in a way you can't get back.

I don't think cards = harder to budget is a universal experience. For some people it is easier, so for essential services there should be a cash option. But pubs are not essential.

Must be so nicer for the staff not to have to cash up at the end of the night or take a load of cash out to the bank.

 

[jimbarkanoodle]

I have noticed my local Aldi in South East London has reduced the self service tills and put more staff back on the traditonal tills. I'm not totally sure why, perhaps it reduces theft and quite a lot of shoppers pay with only cash, irritatingly holding up the queue by silently standing there when there are several free tills available which only take card. And there is the ones which try and go through a self service till with a trolley full of bottled water, which obviously the attendant then has to divert their whole attention to them when they can't scan it all through. The shop can really test my patience sometimes!

 

[ouirdeaux]

irritatingly holding up the queue by silently standing there

I'm sure it would be more irritating if they burst into song.

 

[jimbarkanoodle]

I'm sure it would be more irritating if they burst into song.

Just don't understand why they wouldn't turn around and indicate that there are free tills that people in possession of a bank card can use. Common courtesy surely?

 

[brogdale]

Just don't understand why they wouldn't turn around and indicate that there are free tills that people in possession of a bank card can use. Common courtesy surely?

Extending the role of consumer as producer even further.

 

[TopCat]

I like my local Lidl self serve tills. They limit my queue time and reduce inner kill everyone nearby tension that often figures in my head whilst queuing.

 

[TopCat]

The big cash coin scoops at Lidl are good too. I regularly empty big handfuls into the coin mouth and let it pick the euros and dirhams out. Better than those weasel coin master machines in the big four.

 

[19sixtysix]

The big cash coin scoops at Lidl are good too. I regularly empty big handfuls into the coin mouth and let it pick the euros and dirhams out. Better than those weasel coin master machines in the big four.

Is there a limit on coins?

 

[TopCat]

Is there a limit on coins?

No

 

[Pickman's model]

I like my local Lidl self serve tills. They limit my queue time and reduce inner kill everyone nearby tension that often figures in my head whilst queuing.

I think that kent is felt by pretty much everyone

 

[TopCat]

Is there a limit on coins?

Stick in twenty quid of shrapnel. Buy a four quid bottle of wine. Get your change in notes and big coins.

 

[nogojones]

I have noticed my local Aldi in South East London has reduced the self service tills and put more staff back on the traditonal tills. I'm not totally sure why, perhaps it reduces theft and quite a lot of shoppers pay with only cash, irritatingly holding up the queue by silently standing there when there are several free tills available which only take card. And there is the ones which try and go through a self service till with a trolley full of bottled water, which obviously the attendant then has to divert their whole attention to them when they can't scan it all through. The shop can really test my patience sometimes!

I would ban anyone who can't keep up with the cashiers from Lidl and Aldi. FFS if you don't know how these shops work, shop in Asda

 

[nogojones]

The big cash coin scoops at Lidl are good too. I regularly empty big handfuls into the coin mouth and let it pick the euros and dirhams out. Better than those weasel coin master machines in the big four.

Woah! we don't have that in our Lidls. London really is a different planet

 

[NoXion]

The big cash coin scoops at Lidl are good too. I regularly empty big handfuls into the coin mouth and let it pick the euros and dirhams out. Better than those weasel coin master machines in the big four.

Don't those things take a cut of your money? If so, fuck that. If I'm at the point where I'm scraping together coins in order to have money to spend, the last thing I want is some poxy machine skimming off of it. I'd rather queue at the bank.

 

[teuchter]

'It hasn't delivered': The spectacular failure of self-checkout technology

Unstaffed tills were supposed to revolutionise shopping. Now, both retailers and customers are bagging many self-checkout kiosks.

www.bbc.com

That article seems to be mainly reporting the opinions of a sociology lecturer who shares a niche political view with many of this thread's contributors.

It ends with this:

For the customers that do choose to do the labour themselves, there's one thing Andrews believes won't change. However ubiquitous the technology is, and however much consumers get used to using the kiosks, shoppers are likely to find themselves disappointed and frustrated most of the time.

"It was part of a larger experiment in retail in trying to socialise people into using it," he says. Simply, "customers hate it".

And yet earlier in the article:

In a 2021 survey of 1,000 American shoppers, 60% of consumers said they prefer to use self-checkout over a staffed checkout aisle when given the choice,

This is the reality: most people prefer it.

 

[newme]

Don't those things take a cut of your money? If so, fuck that. If I'm at the point where I'm scraping together coins in order to have money to spend, the last thing I want is some poxy machine skimming off of it. I'd rather queue at the bank.

Asda one by us took a % off if as cash or gave you a scannable thing for inside the shop for full value. Which would then give change anyway. Before this I'd just load up the self service till with cash, they got grumpy when it overflowed tho.

 

[mentalchik]

You are talking about Coinstar....it's not owned by the supermarket....it takes a 10% fee off your total

 

[BristolEcho]

I've used self service since they first came along and think there has been a tipping point where so many people now use them that they are less useful. It used to be that it was quicker, but now everyone uses them that's not really the case so I've gone back to using a checkout occasionally.

 

[TopCat]

Don't those things take a cut of your money? If so, fuck that. If I'm at the point where I'm scraping together coins in order to have money to spend, the last thing I want is some poxy machine skimming off of it. I'd rather queue at the bank.

Lidl dont take a cut. Full value. I am end of month January skint and will be down to the shops with a tenner of copper later.

 

[teuchter]

Disappointing to hear that people are using scab coin-counters instead of getting a human to do it at the bank.

 

[jimbarkanoodle]

I've used self service since they first came along and think there has been a tipping point where so many people now use them that they are less useful. It used to be that it was quicker, but now everyone uses them that's not really the case so I've gone back to using a checkout occasionally.

Yes, you get people trying to use them who simply don't have the intelligence to scan a barcode themselves, or tell the difference between the packing area and the bit where you put a basket etc etc, and they hold up everyone behind them. Mostly they dont give a shit about others though, so it really falls back onto the supermarket to ensure they corral these people to the manned tills, and make sure enough of the manned tills are actually manned.